


New York Holidays

by vcg73



Series: Helen's Holidays [7]
Category: Glee
Genre: Gen, Holiday, I genuinely can't remember if canon Puck joined the military but he did in this story!, Originally written for 2015 Hummel Holidays, Prompt: Hanukkah, prompt: Decorations
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-06
Updated: 2020-12-06
Packaged: 2021-03-09 17:55:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,295
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27920356
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vcg73/pseuds/vcg73
Summary: When Puck decides to visit New York over the holidays, Kurt decides to try some new holiday traditions.
Relationships: Adam Crawford/Kurt Hummel, Kurt Hummel & Noah Puckerman
Series: Helen's Holidays [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2031145
Comments: 2
Kudos: 39





	New York Holidays

“Ho, Ho, Homo!”

Kurt’s mouth fell open when he opened the front door and found Noah Puckerman in the hallway, dressed in a military uniform and a Santa hat, with a small suitcase and a grocery bag in his hands. “Puck, what are you doing here?” he blurted. When his greeting instantly produced a pout, he amended, “What I mean is, I thought you were somewhere in Europe.”

The last Kurt had heard, his former Glee-mate had gotten himself stationed in England. Though, that had been nearly a year ago.

Puck agreed, “Spangdahlem Air Force Base in Trier, Germany, to be precise. But I lucked out and got leave for the holidays this year. I’m going to see Quinn up in New Haven tomorrow, then we’re driving down together to see the folks in Ohio. Figured I’d fly in through JFK and drop off a little holiday cheer for you and Berry first, since I was so close.”

“How nice,” Kurt said, accepting the small bag, whose tell-tale clinking revealed their contents even before Kurt peeked inside. There were two bottles of wine, one white, one red, and a smaller bottle of Jack Daniels whiskey inside it. Still feeling a little confused by the gesture, he said, “Thanks. Come on in.”

He stepped back and allowed his guest to enter. “I’m afraid Rachel doesn’t live here anymore. She’s off somewhere in California trying to become a television icon,” he explained, leading the way to the guest “room”, which now lay at the opposite end of the loft from his own. Just a bed and night table with lamp, separated from the main room by a handsome patterned privacy screen that Kurt had picked up at a second hand store in Chinatown. “Her first TV show was a total disaster, as you may recall, but she burned too many bridges to come back here. She’s still pretty much blacklisted on Broadway after dumping ‘Funny Girl’ after a month, and insulting the Dean of NYADA, so Hollywood offered a better shot at fame and fortune. The last I heard, she was rooming with Blaine’s brother and the two of them are teaming up to harass every casting agent in town.”

Puck shook his head. “Why am I not surprised by that? Does that mean you and Bowties McGelmet are back together?”

Kurt made a face like he’d just bit into something nasty. “No. When I broke off our engagement last year, that was the end. He went back to Ohio, I stayed here, and I think we’re both much better off. I’m seeing a guy I dated for a couple of months when I first moved here. We split up the first time because I wasn’t ready to move on from Blaine, but I ran into him a few months ago at a Broadway cattle-call and we discovered that the spark was still there for both of us. We were both single and in a much better place than the last time, so we decided to try again. So far everything is going really well.”

As he spoke, Kurt was bustling about, gathering fresh sheets and blankets to make up the bare guest bed, whose unmade stated had been disguised by a quilt that Carole had made for him.

“And since I’m currently roommate-free, there’s plenty of room for you.”

Puck nodded, setting his suitcase down and looking pleased with the arrangement as he assisted Kurt in making up the bed with quick military precision. Kurt supposed that nearly three years in the U.S. Airforce would make a person pretty adaptable to settling in strange places. Then again, even in in high school, Puck’s reputation had suggested that he rarely slept in his own bed anyway, so maybe this was nothing new.

“He around? The boyfriend, I mean. He won’t mind another dude crashing here overnight?”

Kurt laughed, grabbing his phone off the breakfast bar. “Not as long as you stay on your side of the loft.” To his slight surprise, Puck just nodded. In fact, he looked pleased by the implication that Kurt was in a happy relationship. There wasn’t a single trace of that distasteful “no homo” attitude that he had displayed in the old days to be seen in his face. “Besides, you’re hardly be the first person to drop in uninvited. Nobody from Lima seems to understand the concept of calling ahead. You’re totally welcome to stay the night.”

“So you and this guy aren’t shacking up yet?” he pressed curiously, plopping down on the newly made bed and bouncing a bit to test the springs. He nodded to himself, pleased with what he found.

“No, like I said, we’ve only been seeing each other a few months. We’ve both had the experience of moving too fast and regretting it, so Adam and I are taking our time this time around. He has his own place, at least for now, but he spends lots of time here. I go to his apartment sometimes too, but he’s got two roommates and the place is basically a shoe box, so we usually spend time here. He’s coming over with dinner this evening, so you can meet him then. We were planning to bake sugar cookies.”

He braced himself for mockery over the cute domesticity of their plans, but Puck just shrugged and said, “I’m better with brownies and muffins, but I can totally decorate if you don’t mind extra help.”

“Love some,” Kurt agreed. “It’s become something of an annual tradition for me to make cookies and take little bags of them to all my friends. I bought a huge bag of holiday themed cookie cutters at a flea market last summer. They were all mismatched and a few were bent, so I got almost a hundred cutters for a couple of bucks. Adam and I bought tons of baking supplies, colored sugar, pastry bags, food coloring, frosting, little candies to decorate with. You name it, we probably bought it. I’ll just give Adam a call and ask him to upgrade the pizza he’s bringing for dinner from medium to a family-size.”

“Awesome. No bacon or pork sausage, okay?”

He nodded. “We usually get a half-veggie, half-pepperoni. Is that okay?”

Puck gave him a thumbs-up, ducking behind the curtain to change out of his uniform while Kurt went to make his phone call.

A little while later, they were settled on opposite ends of the sofa, smiling at one another a bit awkwardly. “So,” Kurt said. “No pork. Does that mean you’ve turned over a new Kosher leaf? Because I seem to recall you snarfing down giant bacon clubs with Finn every time you came over to our house for a video game marathon.”

Puck looked dreamy-eyed with nostalgia at the mention of those heavily-packed foot-long sandwiches. “Aw, why’d you have to remind me? Those were awesome, but I’d be afraid to face my Nana next week if I had bacon on my breath. Especially during Hanukkah.”

Kurt automatically glanced over his shoulder at the large wall calendar hanging in the kitchen. His eyes went wide. “Oh my gosh, I didn’t even realize it was. Should I be doing anything? Do you need to rest, or fast, or light candles or something? I don’t own a menorah but I have some tea-lights around here somewhere. They smell like strawberries. Would that be okay? There’s some potatoes in the pantry if you’d rather make latkes instead of eating pizza.”

The other man snorted. “Calm down, dude! You don’t have to do anything, though I appreciate the offer. I know you’re not a Jew. You’re not an anything, unless you’ve found religion since high school.”

This time it was Kurt’s turn to snort. “Hardly. I do celebrate Christmas, but I’m on Team Santa rather than Team Jesus.”

Puck grinned at that. “Works for me. I’m totally down for a dude whose whole existence is about bringing presents.”

“You have to be a good boy to get one, though,” Kurt teased.

“Damn, I knew there was a catch,” Puck shot back.

For a while, they caught up on each others lives in New York and Germany, but then conversation kind of dried up. Kurt glanced at the darkened TV screen and said, “Want to watch a movie? It’s only a little after noon so it’ll be a few hours until pizza time. We can have some lunch and check out a couple of holiday films. I have a pretty good selection. Not sure if I have any Hanukkah themed ones, though. Unless you like ‘An American Tail’.”

Puck nodded, also recognizing that movies would be a good time filler until Kurt’s boyfriend arrived to take up some of the burden of conversation. Kurt and Puck had always been more ‘friendly’ than actually ‘friends’, and the only things they really had in common were the glee club experience, their mutual pleasure at having escaped Lima, and their brotherly love for the late Finn Hudson. None of which really qualified as happy topics, all things considered. “That’d work. I used to watch it with my little sister every year, so it qualifies. Unfortunately, there aren’t nearly as many movies for my people as there should be. I played around with writing a screenplay a couple of years ago, but I couldn’t get anyone to bite.”

“Maybe you just didn’t find the right agent,” Kurt suggested.

“Or maybe it just sucked,” he said easily. “In spite of Schu’s assurance that we could all be successful in the arts, I’m not sure that’s ever really been my bag, y’know? I enjoyed the whole singing and dancing thing, but I liked playing football too and I know my place ain’t in the NFL. The life I have now is a pretty good one, and I think I may just stick with it. Having a purpose, seeing the world, always knowing where my next meal is coming from. Not a bad way to go, considering the alternatives.”

Kurt smiled. It was strange but really nice to hear Puck sound so confident and sure of his decision. “Okay. Fievel Mousekowitz for you, and how about Mrs. Santa Claus for me?”

Puck’s brow furrowed in puzzlement until Kurt held up the video box showing a beaming Angela Lansbury dressed in a gorgeous scarlet gown trimmed with fluffy white fur. “Why am I not surprised? I was kind of expecting that old musical my mom loves with the chick from ‘The Wizard of Oz’ and her 19th century family, but Mrs. Fletcher is totally just as gay-tastic.”

Too accustomed to Puck’s ways to take offense, Kurt just nodded. “That would be Judy Garland, and ‘Meet Me in Saint Louis’,” he corrected, “And we can watch that instead if you’d rather, but Angela Lansbury is 100% worthy of the adoration she receives and this movie is adorable.”

He nodded. “We’ll save that one for your boy-toy. I’m guessing he’d be upset if he missed out on Garland in the hot red party dress.”

Kurt rolled his eyes and popped the disc for “An American Tail” into the machine, then went to get them some sandwiches and snacks. Secretly, though, he suspected Puck might be right. Adam was cutely obsession with Judy Garland. He had gone starry-eyed with pleasure and demanded a copy of his own when Kurt had shown him the old Public Broadcast holiday TV special mimicking the old Judy Garland show that Kurt and his friends had made during senior year in high school.

“Hey, I know what we should do!” he said suddenly, stopping in the midst of spreading mustard on the sandwich he was making for Puck. “When Adam arrives, we’ll take you over to Grand Army Plaza.”

Puck turned to look at him, interest brightening his eyes. “What’s that?”

“It’s a place here in Brooklyn. I just remembered that they have the lighting of the world’s largest menorah every night this week. Tonight is the big ceremony to start off Hanukkah. I went with Rachel during my first winter here. They have speeches, and blessings, and photo ops, and live music, and free latkes. It’s really fun.”

Grinning widely, Puck agreed. “That’d be awesome, man, thanks! Maybe we can snap some pix and send them to Ma, Sarah, and Jake. I’d send them to Nana too, but she’s old-school. She wouldn’t be caught dead owning a cell phone.”

“Sure, I’ll take as many as you want,” Kurt agreed, happy that he could do something to make his friend’s holiday special. “I think it starts around five, so we may have to eat and run. Or just reheat the pizza later on to eat while we make our cookies.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Puck agreed. “Oh, I like this part.”

He quickly became absorbed in the action on screen, laughing as the giant cat-beasts roared and chased the poor frightened mice. Kurt just smiled and went back to his lunch creations. He liked that movie too, but he preferred the sweet moments. He should have known that Puck would enjoy the action sequences best.

It amused him when Puck sang along with Fievel while Kurt took Tanya’s part on ‘Somewhere Out There’ later in the film, the two of them exchanging a spontaneous high-five afterward. Kurt made some popcorn and they laughed and snacked, tossing a few kernels at the screen and booing dramatically when Warren T. Rat came on screen. It was the most fun Kurt had ever had with this particular movie.

Puck was a little less appreciative of ‘Mrs. Santa Claus’ than Kurt had hoped for, but he put himself out to be a good guest and kept any comments to himself. And he genuinely seemed to enjoy the villainous toy-shop owner, yelling out, “Hey, that’s Bob!” at one point, then explaining to Kurt that the actor had been on a short-lived TV series that he had enjoyed.

A little before five o’clock, Adam Crawford arrived, pizza in hand. He and Puck greeted each other cordially. Adam promptly and enthusiastically agreed when Kurt explained his plan to go to the giant menorah lighting so that Puck could enjoy a Hanukkah celebration.

“You’ll love it,” Adam assured him. “I’ve been several times. A couple of my friends from my old college glee club are Jewish and they introduced me to the tradition during my first year here. I’ve been to the Menorah lighting in Brooklyn, the Christmas tree ceremony in Rockefeller Center, the Kwanzaa marketplace down in Harlem, and the big Winter Solstice celebration down at Saint John the Divine cathedral. New York is a brilliant place to spend the holidays. Regardless of your particular denomination, there’s always something to do here.”

Kurt was impressed, and also a little bit shamed that he had never considered checking out the vast cultural variety on offer. After all, wasn’t trying new things and experiencing the wider world part of the reason he had wanted to come to New York in the first place? “We should do all of those things this year, unless they run over each other,” he suggested.

“Happy to,” Adam agreed. “Most of the entertainment is free, except for the Solstice party. That may be too late to get tickets for, but I have a source that may be able to help.”

Puck smiled at their exchange. He seemed to have taken an instant liking to Adam, and to him and Kurt as a couple. “I’m only here for the night, but maybe I’ll have to see if I can pay a longer visit next time I get leave in December. It sounds like a kick-ass time to be here.”

“It is,” Kurt agreed. “Even in my somewhat limited experience, there’s nothing quite like New York at holiday time.”

After a brief discussion, they opted to save the pizza for later, leaving it in Kurt’s warming oven to reheat after the fun. Then they all bundled into coats, hats and scarves and went out.

The menorah lighting was magnificent, and while Kurt did not understand all of the ceremony beforehand, he appreciated the beauty of it and the sense of community that clearly touched the majority of celebrants.

Puck’s eyes teared up as he spoke the benediction along with the rabbi who conducted the ceremony, and later he sang along with a couple of the songs being played by a live band. He happily posed for pictures in front of the menorah, alone, with Kurt, and with the help of a kindly stranger, with both Kurt and Adam. Copies were sent to all of their families.

Kurt and Adam oo’d and aah’d and clapped along with everyone else when the first candle in the enormous 32 foot tall menorah was lit. And Kurt found the hot, freshly-made latke he tried delicious. Adam ate four of them before Kurt reminded him that they still had dinner waiting at home.

“Thanks, dude,” Puck said as the trio left the plaza later. “That was the bitchin’est thing I’ve ever seen. I appreciate it.”

“My pleasure,” Kurt said, meaning it. For him, it had been fun but he could see that the event had been more personally meaningful to Puck. He was really glad that he had remembered this event in time to share it.

Adam agreed. “That was maybe the best I’ve ever seen,” he said. “You picked a good year to visit.”

He nodded. “I think so too.” Not one to allow any moment to become too maudlin and sentimental, he clapped his hands together and rubbed them briskly. “But now I’m starving. It’s time for pizza and cookies! By the way, I spotted a menorah and a Star of David among your cutters, Hummel. I demand the right to decorate those myself. You can have the Santa cookies. We’ll leave the snow-dudes for your boy-toy.”

Adam laughed. “Snow-dudes?”

“Unless you want to make snow-girls. That’s cool. I just figured, you being into the dudes and all, you’d want to be the one to frost the snowmen.”

A peculiar look came over Adam’s face and he looked at Kurt. “Did that sound as dirty to you as it did to me?”

Kurt just rolled his eyes and elbowed his grinning school-mate in the ribs. “You get used to that. We’ll split up the snowmen, bells, and candy canes. You can have the angels.”

“I already have the most beautiful angel of all,” Adam said sweetly, kissing Kurt’s cheek.

“Shit, we haven’t even started yet, and I’m already drowning in sugar,” Puck griped, but he was smiling as he said it. “How about another movie first? We can watch while we eat. We saved ‘Something in Saint Louis’ for you.”

“Meet me in Saint Louis,” Kurt corrected with narrowed eyes. He knew perfectly well that Puck was just being annoying, pretending not remember the name of the film or its star just to mess with him.

Adam, unaware of the by-play, beamed even brighter than the candle lighting they had just seen. “I love that film!” he gushed. “Did you know that ‘The Trolley Song’ was recorded in a single take? Or that Judy Garland met her future husband Vincent Minnelli, Liza’s father, while filming it? Or that there was a Broadway adaptation based on the film back in 1989, which was nominated for a Tony?”

He continued to spout trivia all the way back to Kurt’s place, to Kurt’s vast amusement and Puck’s utter confusion.

“Happy Hanukkah, Puck,” Kurt said quietly under cover of Adam’s enthusiastic rehashing of all the precise details that had gone into recreating the author’s experience in clothing and home decor. 

Puck looked at him, then at the happily prattling Adam, and laughed. “Merry Christmas, Kurt.”

THE END


End file.
